2024 might come with a belated holiday gift for businesses: the end of some of the less-popular sections of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). There’s bipartisan support for revising that act’s business tax provisions—including the unpopular requirement to amortize research and development expenses—Todd Metcalf, a principal in PwC’s Washington National Tax Services practice, said during the PwC Tax Media Breakfast on December 8. According to Metcalf, if a vehicle for a potential deal for the child tax credit were to emerge, some in Congress would be ready to move.

But there likely won’t be major tax reforms coming next year, given the elections in November, Metcalf said. “My expectation is that 2024 will be a year of examining how various policies are working,” he said, including the TCJA and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

What about the TCJA?: Many of the TCJA’s provisions, including “almost all” the changes it made to individual taxation, expire in 2025, Ken Kuykendall, US tax leader at PwC, said. Congress will most likely be looking at whether to extend certain portions of the law. Many businesses hope to see the TCJA’s international provisions extended, Kuykendall said, including GILTI, FDII, and BEAT, and want to keep the “current rates” that are in the TCJA.

Click here for more on 2024 tax trends to watch.—CV

Global expansion can be a thrilling process—until you’re dealing with a bunch of different payroll providers to pay all those global workers. Juggling multiple payroll providers is cumbersome, confusing, and very costly.

Thankfully, there is a way to streamline your payroll process *and* save some cash. Deel breaks down all the details in their newest guide, The Case for Global Payroll Consolidation. Take a look at how consolidating your global payroll can help:

• reduce global workforce costs
• increase data visibility
• minimize human error
• make well-informed business decisions

Still can’t decide if one global payroll platform is right for you? Download the full guide to see whether payroll consolidation makes sense for your team.

Ask a CFO to describe their job in 2023, and you’d get radically different answers. Some would say they’re primarily storytellers, translating data to investors and board members; others would stress their interpersonal skills.

CFOs had to take on an increasingly wide range of responsibilities in 2023, and that’s showing no signs of stopping next year. Here’s how some top CFOs expect the role to change in 2024.

Interviews have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Kelly MacDonald, CFO at Dynavax

The CFO role continues to evolve at a very rapid pace—transforming from “historical storyteller” to true strategic leader focused on value creation. This will continue to require significant adaptability and agility across our profession.

Specifically in 2024, I expect CFOs to focus on embracing technology and automation, as well as sustainability and ESG requirements and the integration of these requirements into their financial planning and reporting. Beyond the table stakes of reporting and financial planning requirements, I’ll also expect the CFO role to continue its evolution as core strategic leader during a complex economic environment.

Find out here what other CFOs think will change about the role in 2024.—NP

The global economy may be starting the New Year on unstable footing. In a new report, the World Bank predicted international GDP growth would slow for the third straight year and cap off the weakest half-decade performance in 30 years.

“Without a major course correction, the 2020s will go down as a decade of wasted opportunity,” Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s chief economist and SVP for development economics, said in a statement. “Near-term growth will remain weak, leaving many developing countries—especially the poorest—stuck in a trap: with paralyzing levels of debt and tenuous access to food for nearly one out of every three people. That would obstruct progress on many global priorities.”

The World Bank projects global growth will slow from 2.6% in 2023 to 2.4% this year, “almost three-quarters of a percentage point below the average of the 2010s.” Slowed growth reflects “the lagged and ongoing effects of tight monetary policies to rein in decades-high inflation, restrictive credit conditions, and anemic global trade and investment,” according to the report.

Click here for more on global economic predictions.—AZ

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat: 500. That’s how many employees Amazon is laying off in its Twitch unit, after acquiring the livestreaming platform for nearly $1 billion in 2014. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy noted, “For some time now the organization has been sized based upon where we optimistically expect our business to be in three or more years, not where we’re at today.” (Bloomberg)

Quote: “What I can say is that our shareholders don’t have the need to sell the business because we have a billion of available liquidity, we’re profitable and we’re reporting results that are in a good place and can only be better as we execute on our strategy and the economy rebounds and so there’s not an urgency on our side.”—Neiman Marcus CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck on whether or not there are plans to sell. (CNBC)

Read: A dive into the ridiculously lucrative world of fraudulent returns. (the Wall Street Journal)

Close fast, not last: Finance teams that leverage automation are skipping manual processes to close their books faster, gaining timely insights and time back. Regain 24 days with Sage’s report.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}